Ethan Hawke reveals advice Denzel Washington gave him after Oscars loss

Ethan Hawke has revealed that he received advice from Denzel Washington after losing out on an Oscar.

Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in crime thriller Training Day at the 2002 Academy Awards. The award ultimately went to British actor Jim Broadbent for Iris.

Hawke, now 53, has shared that his co-star Washington, who won the award for Best Actor that evening for Training Day, provided him with some useful advice, following his loss.

Speaking on Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace (via Variety), Hawke described how following the announcement, Washington whispered in Hawke’s ear: “It’s better that you didn’t win. Losing was better.”

Hawke explained Washington’s advice, saying: “You don’t want an award to improve your status. You want to improve the award’s status. That’s the way he thinks.”

The Dead Poets Society actor added: “The Academy Award has more power, because Denzel has a couple. It didn’t elevate who he was.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hawke described the prestigious ceremony: “I was at the Oscars sitting next to Denzel Washington and nominated against Ian McKellen. I had already won. It was impossible for me not to see it any other way.”

Hawke also compared Washington to baseball icon Babe Ruth, explaining: “When all is said and done he’s the greatest actor of our generation.”

Speaking about Washington’s imagination, which he described as “so complete,” Hawke said: “I imagine it would be interesting to see how Babe Ruth tied his shoes. You know how he thought about various pitchers. But what creates that is a tremendous amount of energy and thought, right, what creates those moments and once you see somebody working that way, it is like an entrance, there’s all these other rooms that you can go into in the profession.”

He explained: “And that was really inspiring to me to see my chosen profession done at that level.”

In other news, it was announced earlier this month that Washington will star alongside Ice Spice in a new film by Spike Lee.